Drawing for "The Boat of Love"
Datec. 1850
Artist
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
(British Pre-Raphaelite painter, 1828–1882)
MediumInk and graphite on paper
Dimensionssheet: 5 3/4 × 8 5/16 in. (14.6 × 21.1 cm)
Credit LineGift of Virginia Surtees in memory of Rowland P. Elzea, 1996
Object number1996-11
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextThis drawing is a preparatory compositional sketch for an unfinished painting by Rossetti illustrating a sonnet by the Italian Renaissance poet Dante Alighieri. Rossetti included a translation of the sonnet in his Early Italian Poets (1861). The poem describes an enchanted boat in which Dante and his fellow poets Guido Cavalcanti and Lapo degli Uberti are joined by the three women whom they loved. Rossetti took up the idea for the painting in late 1871 but due to a disagreement with the patron it final painting was left unfinished.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
1856-1857
